1910 Rare Book - Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Illustrated by Blanche McManus
A handsome early American illustrated edition of both Alice books, complete with all sixteen striking full-page colour illustrations by Blanche McManus and preserved in its wonderfully pictorial publisher’s cloth.
Author: Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]. Illustrated by Blanche McManus.
Title: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass.
Publisher: New York, The Platt & Peck Co., no date [circa 1910–1914; copyright 1900 by A. Wessels Company].
Edition: Early Platt & Peck reissue of the 1900 first combined edition illustrated by Blanche McManus.
Language: English.
Pages: 255 pages.
Size: 9.5 x 7.5 inches.
Binding: Very good. Original beige pictorial cloth dramatically decorated in red, orange, green, and black, depicting Alice, the White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat, and woodland scene to the upper board; illustrated spine. Light rubbing, minor soiling and wear at spine extremities and corners, as shown, while remaining firm and remarkably attractive. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good. Complete, tight, and well preserved, with generally clean pages and only light age toning and occasional minor marks consistent with age, as shown.
Illustrations: Complete with all sixteen full-page colour illustrations by Blanche McManus. The bold compositions are printed primarily in red, green, black, and white and depict many of the celebrated episodes from both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.
Estimate: USD 200–250.
The book:
This impressive combined edition brings together Carroll’s two great Alice narratives in a large-format presentation distinguished by Blanche McManus’s highly individual illustrations. Her Alice inhabits a visually exuberant Wonderland of sharply outlined figures, theatrical costumes, strong blocks of red and green, and wonderfully inventive settings. The pictorial cloth binding extends the same aesthetic to the exterior, making the volume especially appealing as an example of early twentieth-century illustrated book design.
The sixteen full-page colour plates are the chief attraction of this edition and are all present here, an important consideration for a book frequently encountered with plates missing or damaged. Scenes include Alice with the Caterpillar, the Mad Tea Party, Humpty Dumpty, the Queen’s croquet ground, and episodes from Through the Looking-Glass, giving this well-preserved copy considerable visual and collecting appeal.
The author:
Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832–1898), English mathematician, logician, photographer, and writer. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass transformed children’s literature through their mixture of fantasy, linguistic play, satire, logic, and dreamlike invention, and have remained among the most frequently illustrated works in English literature.
The illustrator:
Blanche McManus was an American artist, illustrator, and author whose work appeared in numerous children’s and literary books around the turn of the twentieth century. Her interpretation of Alice is particularly distinctive for its strong graphic line, limited but vivid colour palette, decorative composition, and markedly different conception of Carroll’s characters from the familiar Tenniel tradition.